Pumping Perth's No 2s - a photo on Flickriver

            The Number 2 Pumping Station at Langley Park in 2011

It looks like a cute historical cottage, but the hundred and ten year old  (1913) W.S.D. building on Langley Park was actually built to solve Perth's serious sewerage problem.

"1869 When William Dale was the inspector of nuisances was investigating the fact that there has been quite a lot of illness and fever in Perth during the summer months, he attributed it to the bad drainage and problems with disposal of sewage,".
"The colonial secretary, in 1878, asserted that 'we are living on a dung hill.'
"During the 1880 there were movements to improve the city's water supply and sewerage."

An editorial in the Inquirer, of 8 June, 1881, declared:
"Any person unaccustomed to a residence in a city where a proper system of sewerage is in force can form, no idea of the convenience, economy, sweetness, and salubrity of such a system; and how great is the comfort which the community is being deprived of by the absence of such a work.
To any person accustomed to such conveniences the earth closets and open drains of Perth are simply execrable, as well as disgusting."

It wasn't until the 1890s that things began to improve in Perth and first deep drains were investigated.
From 1903, under the direction of Hugh Oldham, Engineer-in-Charge of Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage, the sewerage scheme was created.
In 1906 construction started on the Claisebrook sewerage treatment works and in 1912 the Perth Works Department architect A. R. L. Wright designed three identical pumping stations to be situated in Mill Street, Hill Street (later known as Langley Park) and the Causeway.
"The design incorporated a gentleman's public toilet and was given a prominent position,".
"Wright described the architecture as 'a more dignified, domestic style of architecture than might otherwise have been the case.'
"They were commissioned in February 1914, and continued to give service for the next 60 years."
In 1989, a new central sewage station was built in Perth and the three pumping stations in Perth were decommissioned. The building is now owned by the City of Perth.

   

Taken in: Australia / West Coast / East Perth (show map)

Taken on: October 29, 2011

Tags:

Langley Park

Perth

Australia

W.S.D.

Pumping

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Sets appears in: • Perth City, Western Australia.

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Camera: Nikon D7000, f/8.0, 1/250 sec, 55mm (=82mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7000
Lens:	AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED [II]
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	55mm (35mm equivalent: 82mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Ver.1.02
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